Thank you for visiting Dr. Karim’s website at Blundell Orthodontics. In light of what is happening in our communities with the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic and in prioritizing the health and well being of each and every one of us, Blundell Orthodontics is temporarily closed until we receive direction from our governing bodies.
Our office will continue to take every precaution to keep our team and patients safe such as hospital grade infection control and social distancing. Dr Karim and the Team did attend the PDC and had been in self-isolation from March 16th to March 22nd as per the Provincial Health Officer’s order. At present, no one from our clinic has experienced any signs or symptoms consistent with COVID-19 exposure. As an extra precaution, I asked to close the office until Monday March 30th. With recent developments we are now temporarily closed and do not have a firm date of when we can return to the office to resume regular care.
From this point going forward, as by the strong recommendation of the College of Dental Surgeons of BC (CDSBC) our office will suspend all elective and non-essential dental service (which orthodontics is). Any existing patient with a true dental emergency (bleeding, severe uncontrollable pain, infection, teeth, jaw or facial trauma) please call the office emergency line at 604-271-8833 and follow instructions.
Regarding the Pacific Dental Conference
February 24th – the BC Dental Association consulted with agencies of the Provincial Health Services Authority in advance of the conference and shared the discussion with the organizers of the PDC. All parties were aware the PDC was scheduled for March 5-7. For example, Dr. David Patrick from the BC CDC spoke at the conference about COVID-19 in the CDSBC sponsored course at the conference. At no time was the PDC asked by any public health representatives to halt the conference.
March 12th – Dr. John Harding, Chief Medical Health Officer for Vancouver Coastal Health reaffirmed in his media conference that there was very little risk to any of the attendees at the conference and that dental patients could safely continue with care.
March 13th – Dr. Bonnie Henry, Provincial Public Health Officer issued a letter to all health care professionals (distributed by CDSBC to dental registrants) removing the need to self-isolate after travel as they were considered essential health care workers. She further went on to provide some recommended protocols to improve patient safety but made no mention of closing offices or broad self- isolation requirements of dental professionals.
March 16th – BC’s Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, announced today that everyone who attended the PDC needs to self-isolate until Sunday, March 22. The CDSBC has also issued a notice today strongly recommending that all elective and non-essential dental services be suspended immediately.
March 26th – Our governing bodies are providing us regular updates as to the situation of COVID-19.
You can follow along at the COVID-19 CDSBC website page:
https://www.cdsbc.org/Pages/covid-19-info.aspx
We truly appreciate your patience and understanding in these trying times.
Lastly, we are all in this together and we will get through this together as a team. In the 21 years that I have been in practice, these past few weeks have been very humbling. The news requiring us to shut our doors (at this point possibly for months and months) was and continues to be absolutely devastating. We love our work and truly enjoy treating and taking care of our patients. With orthodontics, our patients spend on average a few years with us both in active treatment and in retention checks. Our patients have become part of our family. There is a bigger picture and perspective that we need to keep in mind right now in order to get through this and we will.
Please take care of yourself and each other and let’s get through this together.
Sincerest Regards,
Dr. Asef Karim and Team
